Warren Foegele of the Edmonton Oilers was thrown out of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night after his knee-on-knee hit injured Eetu Luostarinen of the Florida Panthers in the first period. Foegele extended his left leg into Luostarinen’s left leg, leading to a scuffle as Luostarinen received medical attention on the ice. Luostarinen was assisted by trainers and left the ice immediately.
The officials reviewed the hit and concluded that it deserved a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for Foegele. It remains unclear if the NHL Department of Player Safety will impose further punishment on Foegele.
Only 97 seconds later, Florida defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson was penalized for tripping. During the 4-on-4 play, the Oilers capitalized and scored their first goal of the series. Mattias Ekholm took advantage of an odd-man rush and beat Sergei Bobrovsky with a shot through the five-hole.
Fortunately, Luostarinen returned to the ice a few minutes after the incident.
After sitting out last year’s series due to a broken leg, he made his second appearance in the Cup Final game.
Foegele, who was benched for the last three games of the Western Conference finals against the Dallas Stars, returned to the Oilers lineup on Saturday night for the series opener.
In a 4-1 victory, the Panthers extended their lead to 2-0 in the series.
The information in this report was provided by the Associated Press.